A group of motherboard enthusiasts working for GIGABYTE, sharing their insider knowledge and general ramblings of the motherboard business, the tech industry, latest technologies and trends, and other random odds and ends.

Friday, June 13, 2014

The Desktop PC is Dead…Not!

Everyone’s been talking about it. With the rise in popularity and efficiency of the handheld devices, many are choosing to move their computing needs towards the notebook / Smartphone / Tablet market. Such a trend should mean the death of the desktop computer in the very near future.

Well it seems that the future of desktops is not so grim after all. Intel said Thursday afternoon that it now expects to achieve $13.7 billion in second quarter revenue — plus or minus $300 million — up from its original guidance of $13 billion plus or minus $500 million. The company said it expects the midpoint of its gross margin to increase 1%, to 64%, driven by higher PC unit volume.

Directly impacting those numbers is the giant hardware refresh that is taking place in so many businesses. Windows XP is now an obsolete platform that is lacking the technical support which companies need to rely on. What if your employees computer are affected by the latest bug running around and that your company’s data is at risk? No one can afford that kind of threat. So if you are going to change the operating system amongst your enterprise, why not at the same time refresh the hardware that’s been running it for so many years. After all, it's a very justifiable investment that will result in better performance and longer lasting equipment, all for the benefit of the company.

This change is meaning big bucks for Intel and the desktop industry! Intel revised its full-year forecast, saying that the higher business PC unit volume has led it to expect “some revenue growth for the year,” compared to the previously flat outlook. Full-year gross margin is now projected to fall in the upper half of the previous range of 61%, plus or minus a few percentage points, which Intel said is driven by “expected improvements in unit cost and volume.

The desktop PC’s life is far from being over, and the future looks good!